new york city – Eat, Play, Live

Holding the Heavens (PPAC #55)

For the 55th PPAC, we are going to find some public art abroad. I love finding an excuse to set aside time to look through old travel photos. This was from a trip to New York City 10 years ago where I went with my college friend and we met with other friends who were living in NYC at the time.

Daddies Tomato Ketchup (PPAC #40)

First of all, I can’t believe this photo is ten years old.

This was from a trip to New York City. I spent a week there with my college friend who arrived from the Bay Area. We explored the sites, walked through parks, and eat at a bunch of restaurants. In the middle of this New York City Hall Park, you would find this jumbo inflatable ketchup. It was so goofy, and of course, I could not help but take a photo of it. It reminded me of the style of Pop Art a la Andy Warhol’s “Campbell’s Soup Cans.”

And yes, Mocha makes a cameo.

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Salvaged

I went to the September 11 Memorial and Museum in the summer of 2012. I came across this sculpture of the old New York sky line. The medium was a salvaged piece of the World Trade Center. Definitely not junk.

Theme: Junk

Living the High Life at “The Thousandth Floor”

“Up here on the roof, so close to the stars, she felt young and alive and hateful.”

The Thousandth Floor by Katherine McGee is a quick, guilty-pleasure read. It takes place 100 years into the future in Manhattan and it’s is no longer an island, but a lone tower stretching into the sky at a thousand floors.

I wonder, how many meters would 1,000 floors be? The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is at 154 floors at 584.5 m (1,918 ft) and this does not include the tip. For 1,000 floors, you are looking at a little more than 6 Burj Khalifa’s — about 6.5. At 1,000 floors, it’s still within the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Maybe that’s all that praying was, she thought, just wishing good outcomes on other people.”

The floors are separated by class — if you live in the lower floors, you are in the lower, working class supporting the upper-floor residents. The higher you go in the tower, the higher your social economic standing. Then you have the super-elite families in the top floors living the glamorous life where it seems no one worries about money. These people have the latest clothes, technologies, and club memberships.

Five characters across different social classes tell their story in the book. Avery is the richest girl who lives in the penthouse and you have her rich friends, Leda and Eris. Then you have Watt who lives the middle class life and Rylin who lives in the lower floors of the tower working low-wage jobs to support her family. Out of all these characters, I was rooting for Eris and Rylin. Rylin got a chance for a better life and Eris was turning herself around. I’ll just leave it at that.

I was intrigued with the idea of a whole city living in a tower — and we might well be on our way — which is why I wanted to read the book. The technologies featured in the book were pretty cool. In the year 2118, you can send text messages via your eyes (instead of smartphones), you take a train from Manhattan to Paris in minutes, instead of laser tag there’s AR tag.

This book is part of the Thousandth Floor trilogy and I look forward to reading the next book, Dazzling Heights.

Recommendation: Gossip Girl meets the “Jetson’s”. If you don’t like hearing about rich people’s problems, then this book is not for you.

Have you read The Thousandth Floor?

Wild Eclectic Book Club (Name in Progress): I am trying a blog series where every other Wednesday I review a book from my ever-changing Current Reads page. My goal is I write a review without giving too much away!

Bridges around the World

Wow, I had to dig really deep to find some photos of a bridges from my travels. There’s something so charming, pensive, or adventurous about bridges no matter what the size.